by Maura Rose
“Then why try to keep me safe when for all we know, there could be an assassin after me already?”
“We don’t know that. And I’d rather keep you out of the line of fire as long as possible. If you actively investigate, it’ll give them all the more reason to snuff you out and I can’t have that.”
“Father, if you’re going to ship me off to Dublin or something—”
“No. No, just… keep your head down for now. For me, please, love?”
Kelly sighed. “All right.”
“And you’ll help Sokolov out with the paperwork?”
Kelly rolled her eyes. “Out of all the men you could’ve picked…”
“He’s a good sort, I think. He just needs a chance to prove himself.”
“If you say so. I think he’s an idiot.”
“You, my darling daughter, think everyone’s an idiot.”
Kelly laughed. She did love her father, for all that she fought with him. Mother always used to say that they were too similar and that was why they were always going at each other—both too opinionated, both stubborn and determined, both convinced that they were right. But she loved him. And she loved her brothers, too.
She could let him have his victory—or at least let him think that—for now.
“All right.” Kelly stood up again. “You can have him do the investigation. But I want to check his work when he’s done. And I’m there when he accesses the books. I don’t want him to screw us over.”
Father nodded. “I understand. That’s fair. You can keep an eye on him while he goes over our information—but you stay back if he tails anyone or does any first-hand investigating. I want you either here or at the safehouse.”
Kelly knew which safehouse he meant—it was the one that only family knew about and none of the lieutenants, an apartment that Kelly had rented out under the name of her college roommate.
She nodded. “I will.”
She didn’t add I promise at the end of that because, well, she liked to keep her promises.
And she was definitely not going to be just sitting around while some random Russian asshole got to do all the work on avenging her brothers.
Chapter Five
Ivan waited patiently outside in the dispensary while Sean and Kelly hashed out whatever their issue was.
He should’ve known that she would be a firecracker, given who her father was. He almost couldn’t blame her for being annoyed at someone else coming in to handle things—but it wasn’t like he was going to go around being judge, jury, and executioner. He was just investigating for Sean. She didn’t have to jump down his throat like that.
Besides, if her brother died then she was the only living child that Sean had left. She’d be the heir. Keeping her safe had to be Sean’s number one priority right now and if she conducted the internal investigation then she’d be even more of a target. How could she not understand that?
Unless… she didn’t want Ivan investigating because of what he might find out.
Kelly was the oldest child. That meant that she should be the heir, not her younger brother Shane. Yes, traditionally it was the oldest male child who was the heir but women had broken those rules over time and nowadays there were more women running the mobs and cartels than ever. It was more unusual for Sean to skip over her than to make her heir, honestly.
Maybe Sean had his reasons—and maybe those reasons were something more than just an old-fashioned nature. Perhaps there was a psychotic streak to Kelly, one that didn’t seem apparent at first. Ivan had known plenty of crazy people who seemed perfectly normal when you first met them, or even the third or fourth or tenth time you met them. It took a long time to see the madness peeking out of the corners of their eyes.
Could it be that Kelly was the actual traitor?
It was a little early to tell but she knew the books. She would know the schedules of her brothers and where they would be, and if she didn’t, all she had to do was ask one of them. They’d be sure to tell their sister if she casually asked what club they were going to that night or something.
And being passed over for the heir… that was enough to build resentment in anyone.
Still, he couldn’t underestimate the lieutenants. Ivan had heard far too many stories of a trusted right-hand man who turned around and killed his boss, taking over everything, having quietly been turning the men against the boss the entire time.
He’d have to interview people and look into the books and camera surveillance and all the rest to be sure.
The door to the hospital room opened again and Kelly poked her head out. “You can stop standing there awkwardly and come back in.”
Ivan glared at her but didn’t say anything. Smartasses like Kelly fed off of people’s responses.
Kelly just smirked at him, opening the door wider for him to enter.
Sean was sitting up straight in his chair, gazing at the unconscious Shane. “It’s settled,” he said. “Kelly will provide you with the necessary information and translations. As she said, most of our official records are in Gaelic to avoid anyone else getting their hands on them.”
Kelly nodded her affirmation. She didn’t look happy with the decision, but she didn’t look like she was going to punch Ivan in the throat anymore either. She just looked resigned.
“I’ll get started right away,” Ivan told Sean. “And you’ll hold up your end of the bargain?”
Sean nodded. “Bring one or two of your lieutenants around to my place tomorrow for lunch, we’ll go over what exactly you need assistance with and discuss how it’ll be best to handle things.”
Ivan inclined his head respectfully, then reached out his hand. Sean shook it, his grip firm and strong despite the frailness of his body.
There was no contract, no witnesses other than Kelly and the comatose Shane, but it was a deal that would be honored. Sometimes Ivan thought that was all that was holding the various mob families together and keeping them from an all-out war with one another: their damned sense of pride and honor.
Nobody wanted to be called a welsh. No one wanted to be called out for having reneged on a deal made in good faith, a bargain struck. Ivan wondered if that would someday be all that people could say about the mob, when crime had invariably changed so much that none of them were left: ah, it was their pride, their damnable pride.
Chapter Six
Kelly made sure that Father got home safely. His two bodyguards, Jack and Riley, were above questioning. They’d been raised in the O’Gill family and were second cousins besides. She knew their loyalty was absolute.
The lieutenants, however—that was a different story.
There were five lieutenants, and three had been raised in the family. But Sean, her father, coming over from Ireland and taking over when his cousin the former boss had died… that hadn’t sat well with a lot of people. According to what her mother had told her once—Father never talked about it—the resulting transition had gotten bloody.
Could it be that one of those lieutenants was secretly harboring a resentment all of those years? Perhaps this was revenge for being passed over by the original boss in favor of her father. Or perhaps her father had done something to hurt one of the lieutenants in the transition—killed a family member or something.
She would have to find out what Ivan was learning. She couldn’t interview anyone without people getting suspicious, especially when Ivan was doing the same thing. But when she helped him with the records she could pump him for information. There were still enough people left over from those days when her father took over. Somebody had to know something.
Kelly didn’t go home—she went to the safehouse, as she’d said. She might not be spending all of her time there but she could at least sleep there at night.
She missed her own apartment, but this was all right. Honestly, she’d rather be back at the sick room with Shane.
How could Connor be gone? How could Shane, the liveliest of them, be lying there, clinging to life, barely able to bre
athe without assistance?
She should have done something. She should have known that something was wrong. She should have told them not to go out clubbing that night, should’ve told them to stay at home and play cards or something with her like old times. It had been months since they’d all played poker together. She’d let them drift apart, angry that they were being groomed for leadership and she wasn’t.
Now she’d never get to see Connor’s sweet face again. Never hear him sing “Danny Boy” in that lovely singing voice. He’d hated his voice, said it was too high and sounded girly but he’d sing for her when it was just family. Her little brother, the one she’d had to teach how to throw a punch because he didn’t know how and was scared to admit it to Shane or anyone else. The one she’d coached on how to ask a girl out when it came time for him to go to prom and he’d wanted to ask Lauren Hinchcleff, the girl from down the street.
He was gone from her.
Kelly curled up on the sofa, pulling the throw blanket over herself and flicking on the television. Some sitcom was having a rerun marathon, so she just let it play, the volume low. She didn’t want to sleep in a bed tonight. Didn’t want to get comfortable.
She tucked a box cutter underneath the couch and let her hand dangle off so that it was just within reach of her fingertips if someone picked the front door lock.
Connor was gone. And Shane—Shane might be next. He was a fighter, Shane was. Always looking to kick someone’s ass or to get his own ass kicked. It had taken her far too long to realize why he seemed determined to throw himself in the way of danger, why he seemed to want to punish himself for something.
Father still didn’t know Shane was gay. Tough Shane, lively Shane, always-ready-with-a-joke Shane. He didn’t fit the stereotype so how could Father possibly have guessed? He still called them ‘fairies’ for crying out loud.
She’d promised Shane that she’d never tell Father or anyone. When Shane was out seeing someone, she covered for him. This was the apartment he’d bring men back to, since Kelly was the only one who had a key as far as Father knew and Father never checked up on this apartment, keeping its location and existence secret in case the worst happened—like it was happening now.
She’d never tell Father if Shane died. She wouldn’t place that burden on Father. She wouldn’t complicate his mourning.
But god, she’d give anything for Shane to live. Anything.
The fact that there was nothing she could do was what hurt the most. She couldn’t pump Shane’s blood for him. She couldn’t do his breathing for him. She could only sit there and hold his hand and pray to whatever god might be listening to please, please save her brother. Mother was superstitious and believed that the good gentlemen of the hills were watching over them, but even if fairies did exist, Kelly didn’t really see them bothering to heal a broken human. That didn’t seem like their way of things.
No, there was only one thing that she could do to make things right for her brothers.
And that was avenge them.
She was going to find out who’d killed Connor and nearly—might still—kill Shane. And nobody was stopping her. Not Father, and not that stupidly attractive Ivan. She was going to find out who it was and when she did, she was going to make him wish he’d never been born. You didn’t cross her, and you certainly didn’t underestimate her. She’d show them all—her father’s blood, the blood of the mob, ran through her veins sure and certain.
And she could be as deadly as any of them.
Chapter Seven
Ivan told Pavel everything that had happened the next morning in his office. Pavel’s eyes were wide with shock and Ivan could easily see why his father had deemed Pavel ‘a puppy’.
“You’re lucky that you weren’t killed,” Pavel breathed, wonderingly rather than chastising.
“Trust me, I’m well aware,” Ivan replied. “We’re due to have lunch with the old man today. I’m bringing just you—I want to show him the list of the others we’ve got and see what he thinks about who I should make a second lieutenant. I’ll expect you to participate.”
“Participate?”
“Give you opinion. Speak up. Share your knowledge.” Ivan rolled his eyes. “I don’t want stooges, Pavel, I’m not my father. If I’m going to do this then I’m going to do it right.”
“You’ll have to forgive my saying so, sir, but… you never seemed inclined to be into the whole teamwork thing before.”
“Yeah, well, before the only thing I had to worry about was which club I was going to next and who I was going to pick up when I got there.” Ivan downed the last of his coffee and finished organizing his papers. “Double check, make sure we haven’t forgotten anything.”
Pavel went through the papers. “You’re certain about this, then?”
Ivan nodded. “He’s giving us a good deal, better than I could have expected, and his territory is right next to ours. It’s convenient.”
“They have a good position on the docks as well. The Murphy family is their only real competition there.”
Nobody wanted to deal with the Murphys. The term ‘crazy drunk Irish’ came to mind when someone mentioned them. Yeah, he’d much rather be working with the O’Gills. “All right then. Call the driver, let’s head out.”
When Ivan got to the designated meeting spot—the same bar as last night—he found that it was predictably empty. Sean was seated in the corner booth, already eating something. To his left sat Kelly, some papers in front of her.
She didn’t look all that happy to be there.
Pavel nudged Ivan. “Is that his daughter?”
“Yeah, name’s Kelly.”
“She’s beautiful.”
“Sure, until she opens her mouth.”
Pavel grinned. “Are you telling me that you’ve found a woman who’ll actually go toe to toe with you?”
Ivan scowled. “Wipe that delighted grin off your face, Pavel. She’s annoying as they come.”
They walked over and sat down. Almost immediately, as if he’d been hovering and waiting for them—and he probably had been—the bartender came up to take their orders.
Once he left, Kelly pushed the pile of papers over towards Ivan. “So that everything’s aboveboard,” she said, arching an eyebrow as if daring him to contradict her.
“I wasn’t aware I was in the presence of a lawyer,” Ivan shot back. He nodded at Pavel, who put the folder of their papers up on the table. Ivan looked at Sean, who seemed amused. “I have here some papers, so you can look at the state of our affairs and the profiles of some men I want your opinions on. I need more than one lieutenant, no one person can do everything although god knows that Pavel tries.”
“Really? I thought your outfit was small enough that you’d only need one,” Kelly replied sweetly.
The O’Gill family had five lieutenants, a standard number for a good-sized mob family. Ivan tried to ignore her jibe about the size of his own operations. “Other than that, I was hoping you could take a look at our books and tell me where we can improve. My father had a way to doing things that didn’t… let’s say it didn’t get us the best results.”
“You can stop kidnapping people’s daughters for one thing,” Kelly said placidly.
“Thank you, I’m well aware of that,” Ivan snapped. Bringing up the whole operation that had caused his father’s downfall was unnecessary and she fucking knew it. What the hell had he done to get this woman to hate him so much?
Ivan was more convinced than ever that she had to be the one who’d arranged the shooting. Why else would she be objecting to him so strongly and determined to carry on the investigation herself?
“All right, you two,” Sean said firmly. “Like cats and dogs, honestly. Kelly, if you could go and take care of the accounting for last week’s shipment.”
Kelly looked appalled. “You’re going to bench me?”
“Unless you two can be civil to one another,” Sean said mildly.
Kelly’s mouth tightened into a grim line
. “I can be civil.”
One hour later, Ivan was pretty sure that he and Kelly had entirely different ideas of what it meant to be civil.
He tried, really he did, but she just kept countering him on everything. He got it, okay? He hadn’t been groomed properly by his father and he didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Honestly, Pavel knew more about running the family, thanks to running around after his father, than Ivan did.
But that didn’t mean Kelly had to rub it in his face very chance that she got. You’d’ve thought that she was the one mentoring him instead of Sean by the way that she talked.
And Sean let her. He seemed amused every time that she and Ivan would get into an argument, folding his arms, his eyes twinkling.
Pavel kept his mouth shut unless he was spoken to directly, answering questions honestly and intelligently but otherwise staying out of the whole thing. Probably a wise decision. Ivan couldn’t blame the guy for wanting to dodge the Battle Royale between himself and Kelly.
Despite the near-constant sniping, however—and honestly, Ivan wasn’t going to apologize for that, if Kelly was determined to go at him then he was going to give as good as he got—they managed to hash everything out. He now had three men on the short list for lieutenant. He’d promote just one for now and then add the other two on later as their organization—hopefully—grew in strength and needed more men in charge to keep things in line. He had a plan for building his business, and Sean had pointed out some pitfalls and how to best gain favor with the businesses in their territory that were now terrified of the Sokolovs and uncooperative thanks to his father’s bad business practices.
In short, he had the beginnings of a proper plan. For the first time since his father had died, he wasn’t scrambling wondering what the hell to do next.
Of course, it was just a beginning. He’d have to come back to Sean for more help soon he was sure. When he eventually met with the other dons, for one thing. He’d attended those meetings but had never had to talk, only standing in the back. Sometimes he’d wandered out to the lobby or downstairs and flirted with whatever girl was around. So yeah, he’d missed a bit.